


But the Sorrow Stayed

by prophet_of_troy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Arguing, Break Up, F/M, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Maybe he cheated, Maybe he didn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27117488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prophet_of_troy/pseuds/prophet_of_troy
Summary: “What do you mean it’s not what it looks like?! How else would they have that picture, Ronald?”“Don’t do that! Don’t use that tone with me, saying my name like that. We aren’t children anymore, ‘Mione.”
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: 31 Days of Writing Challenge - Fall 2020





	But the Sorrow Stayed

“Do I know her?”

“What? No! I-It isn’t what it looks like. I was just-”

“What do you mean it’s not what it looks like?! How else would they have that picture, Ronald?”

“Don’t do that! Don’t use that tone with me, saying my name like that. We aren’t children anymore, ‘Mione.”

She followed him, the paper destroyed in her tight grip. She held it like a vice, her real proof and biggest humiliation. It was almost a relief, the confirmation of what she’d suspected. There had been that smallest part of her that felt like she was losing her mind, watching him for weeks in search of something. The smallest slip. Here it was, and she felt validated and like a fool all at once. 

“No,” she admitted, her tone hard. “We aren’t children anymore, and yet here we are.” 

She stopped chasing him, and he stopped walking. Hermione drew in a deep breath, anticipating how this would end and dreading it while wishing it would just hurry up and get over with. 

“You asked,” she said, and he turned slightly toward her, “why I keep saying no. You asked why I won’t marry you, and the truth is I won’t marry you because I’m never sure I won’t immediately regret it.”

The words hung in the air and her heart stopped. She held her breath, unable to make herself feel any remorse for saying them. There was a release of pressure in her chest with them. Like she’d been waiting to say it, and his expression seemed to say he’d been waiting to hear them. Like he’d known. 

“Well,” he said quietly. He took a deep breath too, and let it out slowly. “Then I suppose there isn’t anything left for either of us to say, is there?”

Wait, no. Maybe she did take them back. There was an unexpected jab in her chest of anguish at the thought of him leaving. “Ron, I-”

“Take care of yourself, Hermione.”

She reached out to stop him, the shrivelled newspaper falling, but he took those last two steps to the door and he was gone. She waited. She counted to ten, then twenty. It took until one hundred for the fear to begin to fade. For the uncertainty to leave her like he just had.

But the sorrow stayed.


End file.
